Sean McVay schemed against Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio only once as the Rams’ coach.
It did not go well for the Rams.
In 2018, a Chicago Bears defense directed by Fangio dominated the Rams and sent them to an embarrassing 15-6 defeat.
“That was a really humbling night,” McVay said Friday.
On Sunday night, McVay goes up against Fangio again when the Rams play the Eagles at SoFi Stadium. The Eagles (8-2), winners of six games in a row, feature one of the NFL’s top defenses. They have given up 17.9 points per game, sixth in the league, and rank seventh in rushing defense, second in passing defense.
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Tackle Jalen Carter, outside linebacker Josh Sweat and cornerback Darious Slay Jr. are only a few of the stars for a defense that McVay and Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford will attempt to exploit.
“Their personnel is as good as it gets, as far as we’ve seen,” Stafford said. “Their front is really disruptive. They play physical, fast and aggressive. I think they play that way from the front line to the back seven.”
The Rams saw something similar six years ago at Soldier Field. Fangio directed a defense that shut down star running back Todd Gurley, intercepted and sacked Jared Goff four times each, one for a safety. The Rams managed only two first-half field goals.
The loss forced reflection, “and so that was a good learning experience for me,” McVay said.
“You try to apply those things, whether you win or lose,” McVay said, “and there’s been a lot of instances where teams have tried to replicate similar things to what was on display that night.”
Former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was the most immediate beneficiary. He took what he learned from that Rams defeat by the Bears and used it to outscheme McVay in Super Bowl LIII.
McVay, who went on to lead the Rams to a Super Bowl title in the 2021 season, reiterated Friday that he was not afraid to admit there were “things I didn’t do a good enough job of putting our players in spots.”
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He gets another opportunity against Fangio on Sunday.
Learning hard lessons from losses “doesn’t feel fun in the moment,” McVay said. “But the only real growth occurs when you go through those challenging things, if you’re able to use it for the right reasons. And I think in a lot of instances we’ve been able to do that.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
